As I have often written, too many Christians believe God has some detailed plan for their lives like a divine Google Map route to a specific job site God has in mind for them. They hear about the mystery plan from preachers who should know better, and, to use words reminiscent of Luther, it’s all donkey dung. The God has a plan nonsense is corrupted Calvinism and borrowed Hinduism. There is no kismet, no divine rat maze to navigate to get to the celestial cheese.
Does God have no plan? Are we left to wander on our own? No! God has a universal plan for all that each must experience in their own unique way. It’s laid out in plain sight and plain language. It is: Love God, Love Neighbor, especially the ones you dislike and Love Yourself. Love others as Jesus Loves us. That’s the plan. There isn’t any other. If you want specific waypoints along the route, read Matthew 5-7. The plan does not start in some far off place. The starting place is where you are, as you are, doing what you do. You do not have to be anywhere else. You do not have to be anyone other than who you are right now. Don’t obsess about trying to figure out who you really are. Who you are right now is who you are, and God loves you that way. But, when you begin to follow Jesus on the way of Love, your life will change, your relationships will change, your world view will change, and all for the better. You will not be perfect or more authentic, but you will be making progress on the way of Love. You will stumble and have doubts, but Jesus will be there to help you back on the way. That’s the way God’s plan works. Don’t let anyone mislead or deceive you. There isn’t any other way.
If God has a special task or role for you to play, it will be made known to you. You do not have to look for it. So don’t concoct special tasks or roles for yourself and say God laid it upon your heart. That’s not how it works.
Note: I write as a Christian priest and pastor, and believe that God is fully revealed in Jesus, who is the Word of God made flesh. But I hold no illusions about God’s limitations and believe that God can and does engage with people of good faith who follow other religious paths. With others, I have often been made humbly aware of those who follow in the way of Love better than I, but without them knowing that it is God in Christ Jesus who has laid the path before them. Does that matter? That’s up to God, not me.
Your idea that God has a universal plan resonates with me. The idea that God has an individual plan for each of us, minute by minute, has always seemed arrogant to me.